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General Electric notified Boeing of a manufacturing defect in engines aboard more than 70 jets. The suspect parts are gearboxes installed on the Boeing 777-300ER, 777-200LR and 777 freighter versions. Gears inside the box can separate, interrupting the energy transfer from the engine's core to various important aircraft systems, leading to a potential safety issue.

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Looking to spark the U.S. manufacturing sector, three new institutes are being established with $200 million in government funding. The initiatives of the Obama administration will focus on digital manufacturing, lightweight composites and new power sources, drawing on the combined resources of universities, community colleges and federal agencies.

A barroom robot takes orders by smartphone and mixes drinks accordingly. The Makr Shakr mechanical bartender is a product of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Coca-Cola Co. with design help from Italian choreographer Marco Pelle.

Materials engineering is opening up some exotic possibilities that could become commonplace. Leading developments include atom-thick graphite that could be used in flexible solar cells, electric ink that could print circuits into 3D printed objects and nanotube threads that could be used for elevators into space.

Quantum physics makes its debut in computing with a $15 million machine to be shared by Google, NASA and others. Quantum tunneling is the key to speeds 3,600 times greater than possible in conventional computers, allowing many answers to certain types of problems to be computed simultaneously with the computer picking the best of the bunch.

China Southern Airlines has finalized an order for 10 Boeing 777-300ERs, which have a list price of $298 million each. China Southern already uses the 777 freighter and other 777-200 variants. However this is the first time that the carrier has chosen a 777-300.